The Time Is Now
10/30/2021
Since its inception, ABAI has sought to increase the representation of ALL board certified allergists/immunologists in ensuring that the high standards and quality our patients expect and deserve from a certified allergist/immunologist is maintained. This process while rigorous and resulting in the Board being composed of excellent members with outstanding credentials and strong commitment to the goals already mentioned, suffered from a certain selection bias as nominations were restricted to certain organizations such as the AMA, ACAAI, AAAAI or CIS, which meant only people actively involved in those organizations would be nominated, or by prior directors who obviously do not know all certified members of the Board.
The time to eliminate this bias is now. For the FIRST time in its 50 year history ABAI has opened its nomination process to everyone. The Test Writing Committee (TWC) responsible for writing the questions included in the Continuous Assessment Program (CAP) which was previously composed of prior directors no longer serving on the Board, will now be composed of members who volunteered themselves to serve. Earlier this year ABAI invited all diplomates who are meeting maintenance of certification (MOC) requirements to submit an application to the MOC Committee, chaired by Drs. Giselle Mosnaim and Wanda Phipatanakul. 58 excellent applications were received. These were reviewed by ABAI leadership and resulted in the selection of 17 members (see below) to serve on the TWC for the next two years.
Congratulations and much appreciation go out to all those who volunteered to serve in this TWC process that is often both effort intensive and time critical, but especially to those who have been selected to serve in this important way. ABAI intends to extend this process to other programs, thus ensuring that the Board will not only meet its goals but will continue to represent all certified allergists/immunologists.
Theodore M. Freeman, MD
TWC Chair
TWC Members (2021 – 2023):
Karla Adams
Jack Becker
Matthew Bell
David Bernstein
Jonathan Bernstein
Kanwaljit Brar
Scott Feldman
Neema Izadi
Michael Land
Cecilia Mikita
Lindsey Moore
Anil Nanda
Thanai Pongdee
Pavadee Poowuttikul
Christopher Randolph
Rebecca Scherzer